The present invention is directed to the field of light-weight, molded, plastic garment hangers.
Molded plastic garment hangers are widely used for the purpose of shipping and displaying garments. Particularly, in the garment manufacturing industry, such a hanger is often an inexpensive ship-on type whereby the garment is shipped from the manufacturer or wholesaler to the retailer while suspended from the hanger. Generally, such garment hangers are inexpensive single-piece or unitary molded plastic structures which are adapted to be either discarded at the time of sale, returned to the garment manufacturer or provided to a customer free of charge in conjunction with the purchase of the garment suspended therefrom.
Garment hangers of that type may either be simply constructed as molded plastic structures incorporating a unitary or metal central hook portion adapted to be suspended from a suitable support, such as a garment rack or the like, or with a hanger body portion having arms extending in opposite directions from the base of the hook portion so as to facilitate a garment to be suspended therefrom. When needed for specific use, the opposite or distal ends of the body portion or arms may be members to enable the attachment of various kinds of garments thereto, such as underwear, slips, brassieres, swimwear, multiple garments, and the like.
Typically, such garment hangers have a hook portion elevated above a horizontally-extending body portion, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,155; 3,463,369; and Des. 246,817. In order to grasp a garment effectively, clips, grips, slots or hooks (collectively referred to herein as xe2x80x9cclipsxe2x80x9d) are placed at the ends of the body portion of the hanger. Such prior art hangers are exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,623,079; 4,629,102; 3,738,549; and Des. 236,572.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,623,079 and 4,624,102 disclose a hanger having an elevated hook member, a hanger body having horizontally extending arms and, respectively, resilient grips and clips of a U-shaped configuration located at the end of each arm. The U-shaped configuration includes first and second members, which are connected to each other; the second member also being connected to the hanger body. The U-shaped garment engaging grip or clip has a double-flex mechanism to prevent breakage of the grip or clip when a garment is resiliently engaged.
The hanger disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,549 is specifically adapted for displaying brassieres. The brassiere hanger includes a centrally disposed hook and upwardly and outwardly extending first and second hanger arms wherein at the end of each arm a strap-receiving means is located. The strap-receiving means defines first and second strap receiving slots which are generally U-shaped channels into which the shoulder strap of the brassiere is inserted thereby allowing the brassiere shoulder strap to rest on or be draped over the first strap-receiving element.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 236,572 discloses a similar hanger which includes a centrally-located hook at the base of which is a solid hanger body portion, the lower portion of which defines a wide-V shape and upwardly and outwardly and then vertically extending first and second hanger arms.
When displaying the garments hung on such garment hangers in a retail store a unit having extension rods is typically used. The extension rods extend outward from a vertically extending base at different elevations. Each extension rod holds a finite number of hangers. The separation distance between the different levels must be at least the same size as the hanging distance of the hanger with the garment hung therefrom. By maintaining such a separation distance, placing and removing the hangers on the extension rods is done without interference from an extension rod that is immediately beneath.
In each of the above-described prior art hangers the arms of such hangers are narrow. Consequently, when a brassiere is hung therefrom the shoulder straps must be wrapped around the hanger arms to take up slack. Hangers having wider arms and body members, such as the hangers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,074,447 and 5,040,686, have been developed to overcome this problem, as well as to maintain a neat appearance and to increase the number of units of the hanger with the brassiere which can be hung by a display unit.
The hanger of U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,686 includes a central portion and two elongated hanger arms which extend away from the hanger portion. To maintain a neat appearance and to limit the number of times the straps of a brassiere must be wrapped around the hanger arms to avoid slack, the hanger arms are wider than in other prior art hangers. Instead of a hook portion, the central portion has an inner facing side defining a space adapted to accommodate a support member inserted therein, such as an extension rod, so that a portion of the side may rest against the support member. The portion of the side resting against the support member is at an elevation higher than where the shoulder straps of the brassiere are to be held by holding means located on the hanger arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,447 discloses a display hanger having a hanger body which includes a central portion having an extension thereabove and sideward portions ending in bra-hanging extremities and effecting high density display of garments. The extension above the central portion includes a hook portion having an interior detent for receipt of a display rod. The sideward portions are transversely-extending cantilever-supported members.
The prior art also includes a number of garment hangers that are molded so as to receive various indicia or logos, which may be representative of the garment manufacturer, designer or, possibly, the retail establishment, to provide a form of advertisement and to also identify the origin of the garment being suspended therefrom. An embossed logo may also be imprinted therein so as to provide various color contrasts provided through molded raised or recessed surfaces representative of a logo, advertisement, or the like as mentioned hereinbefore. Typical examples of hangers having an indicia or logo include U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,195; U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,547; U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,940; and PCT/AU90/00048.
Most molded plastic garment hangers are strengthened by arms which are of an I-shaped cross-section (xe2x80x9cI-sectionxe2x80x9d) having a central web and upper and lower flanges defining the upper and lower surfaces of the hanger arms. A hanger with an I-section is more specifically described in Australian Patent No. 54 4211 (AU-B-21403/83) and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 283,854. The I-section of the arms is substantially symmetrical about the horizontal neutral axis of said section. The channel or I-section extends through the transition region between the arms and shoulder of the hanger. A typical example of such a hanger having an I-section is that set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,623,079 and 4,629,102.
Garment hangers having an I-section are widely used as intimate apparel hangers because such hangers are simple to manufacture molds for and easy to mold. However, hangers having an I-section tend to fracture, under extreme load conditions, in the region of transition between the shoulder of the hanger and the arm of the hanger, particularly when the hanger is used to support a heavy garment. When the hanger is used to support a heavier garment, the arms tend to bend at the transition region between the shoulder and arms and can, therefore, develop fractures or breakages in these regions. Such problems can develop, in particular, when the hanger is molded from a less flexible material such as general purpose polystyrene.
In terms of forces applied to a hanger when a garment is hung, hangers having an I-section are the strongest resisting the weight of the garment. The maximum rigidity is concentrated in the direction of minimum loading. In the intimate apparel industry, however, the hanger""s ability to resist the weight of the clothing is not the greatest consideration. With that class of clothing the bending moment due to elastic waistbands and the method of loading the garment is usually as high, if not higher, than the loading due to garment weight. The result being that the hanger is more massive than it needs to be.
To provide acceptable resistance to lateral deflection when a garment is hung on such a hanger, it is necessary to maintain the width of the body and arms of the hanger above a pre-determined minimum which is dependent upon the weight of the garment and the maximum wall section allowable for effective molding. The type of raw material (i.e., plastic) is also relevant. While an I-section is adequate for supporting a vertical load, its resistance to lateral deflection can only be improved by the use of superior grade raw material, by increasing the wall section and by increasing the width of the flanges.
The present invention is directed to a lightweight, one-piece, molded, plastic hanger that is particularly adapted for high volume injection molding. More particularly, the hanger of the present invention comprises a hook member, a body member and first and second upswept arms; the body member and upswept arms being molded with a U-shaped cross-section (xe2x80x9cU-sectionxe2x80x9d), E-shaped cross-section (xe2x80x9cE-sectionxe2x80x9d) or curved M-shaped cross-section (curved xe2x80x9cM-sectionxe2x80x9d) wherein at the end of each of said upswept arms a garment retaining clip is positioned, longitudinally on either side of hook member, at a height such that an axis draw therebetween would intersect a radius of a circle defined around the curve of the upper portion of said hook member.
In a preferred form of the invention, the garment retaining clip positioned at the clip end portion of each upswept arm is composed of two horizontal clips, one positioned above the clip end portion and one positioned below the clip end portion, or at least one horizontal clip and a vertical clip. In the latter embodiment the vertical clip can be positioned so that the center of the vertical clip straddles the plane of said body member.
The U-section of the body member and upswept arms defines a vertical wall and first and second lateral webs extending therefrom. To form the E-section, a center rib is extended outwardly from said vertical wall between said lateral webs. In one particularly, preferred embodiment the first and second lateral webs extend an equal distance forwardly, from the vertical wall; and the first and second lateral webs and the vertical wall are equal in thickness. To ease parting of the hanger from its mold cavity and to reduce the mass of the hanger, without diminishing the strength of the hanger and the ability of the hanger to resist deflection, the first and second lateral webs of the U-section and the E-section may be tapered. The center rib of the E-section may also be tapered.
For further reinforcement a plurality of integral ribs which extend tangentially from the first lateral web to a point on the (opposite) second lateral web may be integrally molded at specific locations on the body member and upswept arms of the hanger of the present invention.
The curved M-section of the body member and upswept arms defines a first curved web and a second curved web joined in mid-section by a third curved web to form a curved M-section. For further reinforcement a plurality of integral ribs may be integrally molded at various locations on the body member and upswept arms.
In still another embodiment the hanger of the present invention having a body member and upswept arms may be molded with a stabilizing bar that extends longitudinally from an inner lower edge of the reinforcing web of the vertical clip of each clip end portion, to keep the hanger straight on an extension rod or bar regardless of the weight of the suspended article.
In yet another embodiment, the light-weight molded plastic garment hanger of the present invention has an index cap for identifying at least one characteristic of the garment hanging therefrom. More particularly, the hook member of the present inventive hanger structure has an upstanding flange molded integrally therewith that defines a snap-fit engagement means. The snap-fit engagement means is defined so as to engage an aperture defined by the index cap.
By molding the garment hanger in the above form, a light-weight garment hanger especially resistant to lateral deflection rather than weight-bearing deflection is provided without necessarily increasing mass size, using superior raw materials or increasing the depth of the flanges. Since it is not necessary to increase mass size of the hanger or use superior raw materials to improve the hanger""s ability to resist lateral deflection, the cost of the raw materials is lower than that of hangers having similar lateral deflection capabilities. Further, using less plastic material is advantageous to the environment as well as reductive to the costs of transoceanic shipment of the hangers to manufacturers and/or retailers and the costs of shipment of hangers with garments hanging therefrom to retailers. The elevated garment engaging clips also result in space savings and advantageous marketing since a high rack to display ratio is neatly maintained.
Accordingly, it is a basic object of the present invention to provide a molded plastic garment hanger having a greater strength to weight ratio than comparable garment hangers of the same or greater weight.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive, light-weight, molded plastic garment hanger especially resistant to twisting and lateral deflection.